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Getting Started with Variable Data: Hear from the Experts

Questions and Answers

Q: Are you using any plastics or specialty stocks in your VDP operation? 

Reeder: We use translucent vellum in our laser printers and it looks very nice and gives a totally different look to the book.  We also use a solvent based ink jet which will stick to plastics, like plastic wallet cards.

Liszewski: The high heat and pressure of most of the toner presses prohibits some of this.  We do run pre-perfed and punch-out card forms.

Q: How does a "traditional" commercial offset sales person make the transition to selling VDP?  

Reeder: First, attend as many conferences about VDP as you can, or webinars like this one.  You will quickly "adopt" the paradigm shift in the way you think about communication.  You will also get a lot of ideas.  Second, at Wilde, we have an internal training session for all new sales people to give them collateral, tools, and techniques for selling VDP especially as Wilde has implemented it.  If you are already at a company that is trying to get into that arena, your software and hardware vendors are your best resource.  Xerox trained our staff on digital color.  It was an exceptional program and free because we had their equipment.

Liszewski: Use current strong customer relationships with purchasing/production clients to get into the marketing department.  Most of the VDP sales are forced upon purchasing by the marketing guys who have to deliver results, so they are the real decision makers.  Next – get a good overview of basic data base techniques from either a local Lettershop or data base company.  Don’t be afraid to take along an internal data nerd or your VDP production manager on customer calls.  We have found the “team” approach works great and the client does not mind.  The salesperson always maintains the relationship.  Finally, print sales guys can be very effective since the production process is still a big part of the equation – just understand that you are dealing with a totally new group of people to whom you must prove trustworthy regarding their most precious asset – their data.  I tell people all the time it would be the same as me trying to sell offset printing – it is too complicated for me to present alone. 

Q: What kind of response rates are you seeing with VDP versus static?   

Reeder: When we simply replace traditional Pick and Pack with a POD piece/book, we are seeing 2 to 5 times improvement in response rates depending on the type of personalization.  In terms of customer loyalty and satisfaction, one supermarket chain has seen coupon utilization approach 75% when the coupons are VDP based on customer buying habits.  And this isn't giving discounts on items they usually buy.  It is driving them to higher utilization of departments they usually don't use or increasing the number of times they visit a store in a given month.

Liszewski: Lots of spread, but when clients use multiple variables and color, it is not unusual to see the rate double.

Q: For the front end order system off the web, what are you using, home grown or off the shelf?  

Reeder: We are using home grown.  However, we always keep an eye out for a robust package that meets our needs every time we are looking to upgrade our home grown system. 

Liszewski: For Web-to-Print, we have Printable, which is adequate.  Our focus is larger volume, repeat DM programs, so I may not be the best judge.  I am impressed with Aksess also.  It is highly customizable and I know the guys at Great Lakes are very good.

Q: Do you have any specific examples you can share relative to improved ROI and/or postal savings?   

Reeder: We converted Viacord (www.viacord.com) from a traditional pick and pack with a sleeved folder to three different VDP booklets.  One was for pure direct marketing and low cost.  One was customized for a doctor's office with their logo and punch out business card as well as their choice of some content articles.  And finally one was personalized for people who had expressed a specific interest.  Their overall costs were reduced by 30-40% because of postage savings (lighter packages), much lower inventory costs and no pick and pack costs.  Their response rate shot up by almost 250% and remained at that level.

Liszewski: The interesting thing about case studies is how protective our clients are about their success.  Everyone wants to hear about them and we have some incredible ones to share, but many of the biggest users consider this a competitive advantage in their markets and will kill to keep the results under wraps.  We have become one of the largest production facilities in the world with VDP, but my two largest clients hold their results close – both have doubled their spending in VDP over the past year.  The best stories go untold.

Q: Is there data that show the improvement in student visits or applications based on the variable content viewbooks for colleges and universities?  

Reeder: We did not receive metrics back from the colleges. 

Q: Concerning your Nexpress digital presses, are you using the Coater Station, if so how is that working out appearance and what cost does it add to the press sheet?

Liszewski: We do not use the coaters.  We find that with our volume, we offer more options by coating off-line better, cheaper and faster.  I am impressed with the station and we are discussing adding it for testing.  I don’t know about the cost.

Q: How often do you use the major list companies to do a VDP campaign for your clients? Do you feel comfortable using their lists?  

Reeder: We only use these for unsolicited direct mail campaigns, often centering around the insurance industry.  We have no problem using them, although the  brokers have reported a significant difference in the accuracy of list between different vendors. 

Liszewski: We try and stay out of the list purchasing side.  I often recommend brokers I have worked with, or Acxiom or InfoUSA to negotiate directly.  I have found that getting too involved with the lists makes you more liable for the outcome of the program.  List sourcing is a very specialized activity and it is better left to the pros. 

Q: We currently do VDP here.  Many of our clients are retail and have in-house print buyers.  Generally they provide a “shell” or form to us and we then do the variable data.  It is class one personalization…name address salutation but then there is versioning within the letter content.

We often encounter printer delays and/or short shipment.  Needless to say the mail date does not change and we often get asked to “do whatever is necessary to get the job out”.  We charge  for this and sometimes get the additional revenue.

I was wondering if the speakers had any type of “disclaimer” they used on their quotations, check lists, etc.

What words of caution would you offer in such circumstances?   

Reeder: If you are asking if we have some agencies/companies that provide the composed print stream of the VDP documents and all we do is print them, then the answer is yes.  The words of caution are that they need to provide the QC procedures for our print operators and samples of what we should expect to see because otherwise we are flying blind.   Otherwise, if they are providing pre-printed forms or the static content already composed in, say, Quark, we have no problem working with that.  We will double check the registration of every new shipment of pre-printed forms to ensure text will still line up.

And absolutely, we have a disclaimer that says we are not responsible for project delays if the client is providing the stock and it is late or short.  Our Account Managers try to get it in house as soon as possible, we cycle count it and try a test run to verify the registration.  This test run is especially important when we are precisely dropping multiple components on the form.

Liszewski: Always base delivery on final approvals. If materials are provided from another source (shells, forms, etc.), have the agency accept the forms upon delivery to your facility, prior to any of your work.   We often have “challenges” with our agency partners in backing off of hard production dates, but remember, part of the selling point of VDP is its flexibility and speed-to-market.  Don’t sell it that way and then create the same protocol as with traditional work or be surprised when a client asks for last minute changes.   Working with agencies requires a huge commitment to adjusting to their schedules and their relationship with the client.  We have had to pattern our production capabilities around them (nights, weekends, all-nighters, etc.).  It is a great environment but not everyone can do it.

This free event is made possible by Exstream Software and Kodak.

About Exstream

Headquartered in Lexington, KY, Exstream Software helps businesses around the world connect with their customers through higher quality, fully personalized customer communications delivered by mail, email and the Internet. Companies in the financial services, insurance, service bureau, telecommunications, utilities and other industries benefit from as much as 85 percent faster time to market, up to 80 percent reduced costs and increased revenue through improved customer retention.

For more information about Exstream Software and its market-leading Dialogue and AFP Studio technology, visit www.exstream.com, or contact Exstream at 859-296-0600 or info@exstream.com.

About Kodak

Kodak is the leader in helping people take, share, print and view images –for memories, for information, for business, and for entertainment. With sales of $13.5 billion in 2004, the company is committed to a digitally oriented growth strategy focused on four businesses: Digital & Film Imaging Systems – providing consumers, professionals and cinematographers with digital and traditional products and services; Health – supplying the medical and dental professions with traditional and digital imaging and information systems, IT solutions and services; Graphic Communications – providing customers with a range of solutions for prepress, traditional and digital printing, and document scanning and multi-vendor IT services; and Display & Components – supplying original equipment manufacturers with imaging sensors as well as intellectual property and materials for the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) and LCD display industries. More information about Kodak (NYSE: EK) is available at www.kodak.com.